Stef Lewandowski - Latest Comments

Re: Protected: London C-all-in-g

jamiebullock — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:31:10 -0000

Good luck Stef. It takes a lot of courage to up sticks and move like this.

I look forward to finding more about this "new venture focussed squarely on the creative industries" that will be "utterly cutting edge". Very intriguing!

Re: Protected: London C-all-in-g

melkins — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:39:50 -0000

Congrats and good luck with the move! :)

Re: Protected: London C-all-in-g

melkins — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:38:42 -0000

Congrats!

Re: Protected: London C-all-in-g

simon gray — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:16:43 -0000

have fun the four of you !

Re: Protected: London C-all-in-g

Ed Hart — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:57:14 -0000

Good luck Stef, opportunities like Clore don't come often, and I'm sure you'll make the most of it! Bit like having booster rockets attached to your career, and its time to light the fuse!

Re: Protected: London C-all-in-g

brendadada — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:33:23 -0000

Crumbs, congratulations! I'm sure Birmingham will miss you. Will be following the next stage of you career with interest. Exciting.

Re: Protected: London C-all-in-g

chrisbarber — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:32:27 -0000

Congratulations and good luck! We wish you, Emily and the kids all the best!

Re: Protected: London C-all-in-g

Michael Grimes — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:16:07 -0000

Best of luck Stef :-) I'm glad I had the opportunity to meet you, to work with you and to learn from you. London has even more coffee shops than Birmingham, so if you ever need a hand comparing them...

Re: Protected: London C-all-in-g

aeioux — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:53:30 -0000

Yeah, you spotted it - we've been off the radar for a while - glad to finally be able to talk about it!

Re: Protected: London C-all-in-g

aeioux — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:52:24 -0000

Thanks Karen - it's been great fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with your photography, yet from a little bit further away... :-)

Re: Protected: London C-all-in-g

chrisunitt — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:35:18 -0000

Good luck! I thought you'd been keeping quiet - we'll be watching the next big adventure with interest. We're always here if you need us.

Re: Protected: London C-all-in-g

Karen Strunks — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:24:25 -0000

All the very best Stef. I wish you every success in your exciting new ventures.

Re: Protected: London C-all-in-g

aeioux — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:19:03 -0000

Thanks Sam!

Re: Protected: London C-all-in-g

Sam — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:57:27 -0000

Good luck sir!

Re: The best vampire film ever made?

cyberpunkdreams — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:07:22 -0000

Well, you did rather spoil it for me, as the cinematic trailers don't give away that it's a vampire film and I get the feeling that everyone else was deliberately not mentioning the fact. But now I know...

Re: Does BCCDIY risk devaluing digital marketing?

carlmorris — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:29:03 -0000

Stef,

I like what you and the community have done, it's fantastic and a great example for others.

When you say BCCDIY has an "open source ethos", are you referring to the Github and the licence for the software you've written and adapted? (Is it GPL?)

I think it's worth having some precision about different kinds of work and value contribution.

I've been thinking about open source a lot and I don't think it helps understanding to refer to anything other than code as open source.

Volunteering your time for a one-off installation is something you decide to do because you're a decent sort of guy or girl. Or I guess because of other reasons like getting a "portfolio" that leads to paid work. Or because you enjoy it. Or because you're a masochist!

Whatever the motivation(s), I don't think "open source" can sensibly be used to describe this gesture. It's maybe a metaphor at best.

I'll talk about GPL because that's the licence I'm most familiar with. And it's the licence WordPress uses. The GPL licence applies to code intended to be distributed, through sale or other copying. So you can still use open source software for a one-off installation, tweak it and not be required to release it under GPL. (Although you can release it, but you would have to use GPL.)

You can get paid for this work or, as your team did here, do it for free. Obviously you can also get paid for setting up something proprietary. So open source or not is kind of nothing to do with the volunteering aspect.

In a sense you've done two good deeds if you're releasing the code open source as well (for other councils and volunteers etc.). It's worth being clear about that, rather than lumping it all under open source! I don't know if I'm stating the obvious here or not.

You are even entitled to set up a hosted service like wordpress.com called Council Website In A Box - or whatever - and now charge councils to get accounts if it's one-off. But if you travel from council to council installing it on different servers, I think that counts as distribution and you're required by GPL to release it open source.

Re: A letter to my MP about Ian Tomlinson

dog fence — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:46:35 -0000

the work done and shown in the blog is real shame that Lynne Jones, a good independent minded MP, is standing down.

Re: Mobile Spam, Scams and Halifax First Assist

philipbartlett — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:25:41 -0000

First Assist are not scammers, they are an Insurance administrator who work with banks and other large orgnisations as its chepaer to get a cut from the money first assist makes then it is to set up your own call centre etc. IF you have any insurance for accidents and injuries etc with HBOS, Barclays, the AA, RAC its with First Assist. The TPS cant do anything because all the people they ring have consented to reicve calls from the halifax and companys working on thier behalf. They employ mostly Students and people between proper jobs. They are the 5th biggest supllier of sepcialty insurance in the uk and the 2nd biggest supplier of legal protection insurance in the uk. The funny thing is that you can get the cover that poeple are ringing about cheaper by going on the halifax website and clicking a link on to the first assist website then over the phone. They arent bad people they just work for bad people. the are just trying to make a living like anyone else, and if you treat them like s**t then they are going to follow suit. treat others as you would like to be treated etc.

Re: Does BCCDIY risk devaluing digital marketing?

oneblackbear — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:02:17 -0000

I agree with your point totally. I love the fact that Clarity use Wordpress themselves.

I think BCCDIY proves that action is better than the typical British way of moaning and not doing something about it.

BCCDIY has quite obviously proved that it is not "devaluing the commercial aspects of digital marketing" by the buzz the project has created. This would not be the case without voulenteers, a good cause, and a real objective.

If anything BCCDIY has highlighted a problem, and proven that there is a community out there of passionate individuals ready to solve it.

(that was my extra long tweet). phew.

Re: Wedding Photographer of the Year 2009

Baby Gifts — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:27:15 -0000

What’s more - she’s now entering the national awards, so fingers crossed…

Re: Guardian: Digital technology for public services and communities could make bottom up more effective than top down

johnwheatcroft — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 03:38:55 -0000

What a fantastic idea, as the owner of web programmer myself, I think this is a fantastic idea well done all. The only reason the the official site is written by CRAPITA er sorry CAPITA is that it has a bunch of M.P's on its board of directors - That does not make them good programmers though. Look at the 'NHS I.T Programme' if you want an example of their handiwork, or you can read Private Eye who often lament the shortcomings of this decidedly dodgy company.

Re: BCC DIY Hack Day collected memory

Martin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:19:46 -0000

Blog post: Do it yourself Birmingham http://mynameismartin.com/do-it-yourself-birmin...

Re: Why build a new site for Birmingham City Council?

aeioux — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:37:32 -0000

Thanks Will - in fact I'm applying for some small funds to run a second hack day, with the proceeds going towards the web hosting...

Re: 4IP Idea: How to Look Good Online

diet_pill_online — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:16:41 -0000

Great! Thank for information, I'm looking for it for a long time,

Re: Why build a new site for Birmingham City Council?

wgdaniels — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:42:31 -0000

An excellent idea I think! And not only as a response to one particular poor technology investment...seems to me that council websites are ideal for community projects more generally. Imagine if that much money were to be spent helping to sponsor a community-led technology project to develop and maintain the council's website? That would add a whole lot more value, in terms of fostering a community spirit as well as helping people around Birmingham get together to learn/practice/teach tech skills, than wasting it on an overpriced commercial project.

I'd love to see Birmingham officially sponsor such a community-driven technology project...would say far more about the city as a pioneer in the digital age than just blindly and needlessly approving a large budget for building a website...this is exactly the kind of cultural leadership councilors tend to lack.